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Emissions and Aviation: Towards Greener Air Transport

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Green Transportation Logistics

Part of the book series: International Series in Operations Research & Management Science ((ISOR,volume 226))

Abstract

Air travel revolutionized intercity transport, and today it contributes significantly to economic growth worldwide. However, aviation growth has a number of negative consequences, including environmental impacts on air quality, noise and the global climate. A number of new technologies and aircraft operating procedures are under development to mitigate these impacts. These, including revolutionary new aircraft and engine technology, biofuels, improvements in air traffic management, and new airline operating procedures, are discussed in detail in this chapter. A further topic of discussion is policy intervention. Because of the rapid growth in demand for air travel, policy intervention is likely to be required to drive much of the technological developments described and to speed up their uptake into the global fleet. With a combination of technological developments and policy intervention, however, significant progress towards greener air transport is possible.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A change in average net radiation at the top of the troposphere (Penner, 1999).

  2. 2.

    Block fuel for a given flight refers to the total fuel used from the moment the aircraft pushes back from the departure gate, before takeoff, until the moment the aircraft arrives at the arrival gate, following its landing.

Abbreviations

4-D:

Four-dimensional

ADS-B:

Automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast

BTL:

Biomass-to-liquid

BWB:

Blended wing-body

CCS:

Carbon capture and storage

CDA:

Continuous descent approach

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

CRC:

Conceptual Research Corporation

CTL:

Coal-to-liquid

DDA:

Delayed deceleration approach

EPA:

US Environmental Protection Agency

ERA:

NASA’s Environmentally Responsible Aviation project

ETS:

Emissions trading scheme

FAA:

US Federal Aviation Administration

F-T:

Fischer–Tropsch

GDP:

Gross domestic product

GPS:

Global positioning system

GTL:

Gas-to-liquid

HEFA:

Hydro-processed esters and fatty acids

HRJ:

Hydro-processed renewable jet

ICAO:

International Civil Aviation Organization

ICR:

Intercooled recuperative cycle

IPCC:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

LEAP:

Leading Edge Aviation Propulsion

LUC:

Land use change

MIT:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

NACRE:

New Aircraft Concepts Research project

NASA:

US National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NextGen:

Next Generation Air Transportation System

NOx :

Nitrous oxide

RNAV:

Area navigation

RNP:

Required navigation performance

SPK:

Synthetic paraffinic kerosene

US:

United States

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UCL Energy Institute, London, UK

    Antony Evans Ph.D.

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  1. Antony Evans Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Antony Evans Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Transport, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

    Harilaos N. Psaraftis

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Evans, A. (2016). Emissions and Aviation: Towards Greener Air Transport. In: Psaraftis, H. (eds) Green Transportation Logistics. International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, vol 226. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17175-3_13

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